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Impactful Coaching Moves: The best and worst decisions of Week 11
By Ethan Levine
Published:
Here are the best and worst coaching decisions from around the SEC in Week 11:
GOOD MOVE
Despite Kyle Allen’s struggles against Louisiana-Monroe in his first career start in Week 10, Kevin Sumlin trusted his freshman quarterback in Saturday’s road showdown with Auburn, and that trust ended up benefitting the entire offense in a 41-38 Aggies victory.
Sumlin and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital chose to spread Auburn’s vulnerable defense from sideline to sideline, and allowed Allen to air the ball out on six of A&M’s first seven offensive snaps. Their strategy worked, as Allen completed five of those six passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns to give the Aggies an early lead. Auburn struggled to matchup with A&M’s big, explosive receivers, and Allen picked the Tigers apart from the pocket.
On A&M’s third drive, the offense ran the ball on four straight plays and punter after picking up just one first down. As a result, Spavital put the game back in Allen’s hands, and on A&M’s fourth drive the freshman was 5 of 7 passing for 64 yards and his third touchdown of the day.
It wasn’t easy to trust Allen after he threw for just 106 yards at home against ULM, but Sumlin and Spavital’s confidence in the freshman helped the A&M offense score 35 first half points in the Aggies signature win of 2014.
BAD MOVE
LSU fell victim to a kickoff out of bounds and a furious Alabama rally as Saturday’s game in Baton Rouge turned from a certain Tigers victory to an overtime thriller. However, it was LSU’s play in overtime that deserves the most criticism in the aftermath of the devastating loss.
The Tigers had run the ball for 183 yards in regulation against an Alabama defense allowing opponents to rush for just 89 yards per game this season, but they threw the ball on four straight plays in overtime as Alabama held on to a seven-point victory. LSU quarterback Anthony Jennings was a putrid 8 of 26 passing on Saturday, begging the question: Why did offensive coordinator Cam Cameron abandon the run with the game on the line?
Cameron went away from the strength of the offense and relied on a suspect passing attack to try and force a second overtime in Death Valley. Worse yet, two of those four pass attempts were heaves into the end zone, leaving LSU little chance at putting together a successful overtime drive.
The Tigers mismanaged the situation and tried to force a big play rather than piece together a successful 25-yard drive to extend the game. As a result, they missed their chance at another win over a top 10 team, and gave Alabama the satisfaction of escaping a night game in Death Valley with its best win of the season.
GOOD MOVE
It’s easy to downplay the coaching moves made in a 48-0 rout of an FCS opponent, but Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze did a great job of managing his quarterbacks in the second half of the Rebels’ blowout win over Presbyterian on Saturday.
Leading 35-0 at halftime, Freeze sat quarterback Bo Wallace the entire second half and alternated between backups DeVante Kincade and Ryan Buchanan the rest of the day. Wallace has now started every one of Ole Miss’ games since the beginning of the 2012 season (36 games in a row), leaving little opportunity for Freeze to develop Kincade or Buchanan, the Rebels’ young backups.
However, Wallace is in his final year of eligibility, and Freeze will have to find a new quarterback by the start of next season, making the reps his backups received even more valuable. The head coach was wise to remove Wallace from a game Ole Miss had essentially already won, but his real genius showed in the way he rotated his two quarterbacks and allowed them to get their feet wet at the Division I level.
Buchanan is a freshman and Kincade is a sophomore, so neither has a tremendous amount of experience. He could have asked one of the two to simply hand the ball off until the time ran out, but instead each signal caller was able to attempt a handful of passes and show what he is capable of at the helm of Freeze’s offense.
Saturday’s game won’t be the only resource Freeze uses when choosing Wallace’s replacement next year, but the reps both backups received made them both better players, and gave Freeze a better idea of where each player is at in his development process.
BAD MOVE TURNED GOOD MOVE
Alabama found a way to rally past LSU in overtime last weekend, but ‘Bama nearly played itself out of the game with some questionable play calling in the first quarter.
The Crimson Tide entered Saturday’s game having run the ball on 59 percent of its offensive snaps in 2014 (344 rushes in 583 plays), but for whatever reason it only ran the ball three times in 16 plays in the opening quarter of Saturday’s game. As a result, the offense managed just two first downs on four possessions, both coming on the Tide’s opening drive, which featured all three first quarter rushes.
Alabama trailed 7-0 through one quarter and appeared to be in trouble offensively in a night game in Death Valley. As a result, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin reverted back to a steady rushing attack headed by Derrick Henry and T.J. Yeldon, and the Tide outscored LSU 20-6 the rest of the game. Kiffin corrected his mistake and Alabama drove 70 yards on its first drive of the second quarter, which featured eight run plays, putting the offense back on track the rest of the night.
It certainly wasn’t Alabama’s prettiest offensive showing this season, but Kiffin’s in-game adjustment helped Alabama find a way to win in overtime to keep its playoff hopes alive another week.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
